The mother wolf remained completely still, even rubbing her belly against his feet once more.
“Heh~ Do you think begging for mercy is going to work...?”
A cold, mechanical voice interrupted Lynn's speech.
【Talent Trait Triggered—】
【Apex Cao Cao (Gold): You have a 200% attraction rate toward females of both human and non-human races over the age of 18.】
【Target detected: Icefield wolf (female, approximately 11 years old, equivalent to about 48 years old in human terms)】
【Base Favorability Value: 15】
【After trait adjustment: 45 (200% bonus active)】
【Current Favorability Level: Friendly (Threshold for "Information Sharing" reached)】
Lynn's eyes widened.
“Wait a minute.” He pointed at the mother wolf rolling on her belly. “Eleven years old translates to forty-eight in human years—and even this is within the strike zone of Apex Cao Cao?”
“Is this script even right?”
Lynn was witnessing the sheer lethality of this gold trait for the first time. In theory, as long as the target was female, adult, and breathing, he was a peerless beauty with an eight-hundred-layer filter in her eyes.
He took a deep breath, thinking of the crowd of noble girls at the previous banquet who had been casting coy glances and speaking up “out of righteousness” for his reputation.
“And here I thought... they were won over by my righteous actions.”
“Turns out they were just coveting my body this whole time!”
“Awoo~” The mother wolf thrashing around on her back pulled him back to reality.
With a “since I'm already here” attitude, Lynn experimentally gave the mother wolf's belly a rub.
It felt rough and coarse, not even comparable to Lilian's little head.
Seeing their mother being petted, the three little wolf pups immediately whimpered and nudged against Lynn's hand. One of them clamped its mouth directly onto his finger and began to suckle. After sucking for a while and realizing no milk was coming, it angrily swiped at him.
“Hiss—you little brat!” Lynn flicked the wolf pup's forehead. “Look closely. I'm a guy, I don't have that function!”
The pup was dazed by the flick, shrinking back to its mother's side in grievance, staring at him with accusatory eyes.
“Hey, big sister. You're worth five victory points, you know. Give me a reason not to kill you?”
As if understanding Lynn's murmur, the mother wolf nudged the victory point magical artifact on Lynn's wrist with her nose, then raised her front paw and scratched at the snow a couple of times.
She first drew a crooked, long line pointing in a certain direction, then patted down a few small hollows at the end of the line. Finally, she drew a noticeably larger pit and bared her teeth toward it.
After completing this series of actions, she looked up at Lynn, her eyes carrying a “I've made myself clear enough, figure it out yourself” look.
Lynn stared at this pile of meaningless abstract snow drawings for a full thirty seconds.
“You mean... the place this line leads to has several groups of magical beasts gathered there?”
The mother wolf's tail wagged happily. Her face was practically written with: ‘You finally get it, two-legged beast’.
“Icefield wolves too?”
The mother wolf let out a low howl and looked down at her paws, seemingly thinking about how to express herself.
After a moment, she scooped up a small pile of snow with her paw, slapped it apart, then scooped it up again and slapped it apart. After repeating this for a third time, she scooped up a larger pile of snow and drew a few vertical lines on it.
After a difficult exchange, Lynn came to a conclusion.
“You know the location of three nests of snow-maned bears?”
The mother wolf's ears perked up, and her tail wagged even faster.
Snow-maned bears—the overlords among Tier 2 magical beasts. They lived in packs, with at least three to five per nest. Three nests combined would easily mean over a dozen of them. Most importantly, a single magic crystal from a snow-maned bear was worth at least twenty victory points.
“Then what is this big one?”
The mother wolf's movements suddenly became extremely cautious. She first tapped the ground lightly with her paw, then slowly drew a very large circle, stamping her paw down hard inside it.
Next, she lowered her head, scooped all three little wolf pups behind her, blocked them with her body, and looked up to let out a low, warning growl at Lynn.
“Are you... afraid?”
“Could it be a Tier 4 magical beast?”
The mother wolf shook her head like a rattle.
“...Tier 5?”
The mother wolf began to twitch nervously, hiding her three pups even tighter.
“...Alright, thanks for the warning. I'll take those three nests of snow-maned bears.”
The mother wolf seemed to sigh in relief, lying back down on the ground. The three little wolf pups poked their heads out from behind her, and the one whose forehead he had flicked stuck its tongue out at him.
Lynn laughed in amusement and bent down to poke the little thing's head. “Don't get cocky, kid. It's only because you aren't worth a single victory point. Otherwise...”
The wolf pup wasn't scared at all. Instead, it rolled over, exposing its little pink belly once more.
【The wolf pup is not yet 18 years old—Apex Cao Cao cannot be triggered】
“...Do you absolutely have to show up to make your presence known at a time like this?”
Before vanishing, the mechanical voice thoughtfully popped up one last line of text: 【However, the mother wolf's favorability has reached Friendly, so her offspring will naturally feel close to you. This is called the word-of-mouth effect.】
“What the hell is a word-of-mouth effect?!” Lynn finally couldn't help but swear.
The mother wolf yawned lazily, seemingly feeling that although the two-legged beast in front of her was a bit touched in the head, he wasn't a bad person after all. She nudged Lynn's wrist with her nose, then drew several new locations on the snow. Every time she drew one, Lynn's eyes brightened a bit more.
“You're awesome, big sister! You are my gold-medal informant!”
“Hahaha, little shorty, let's see how you're going to beat me now!”
Watching Lynn immerse himself in some unknown fantasy, the mother wolf rested her chin on her front paws, a dark line of exasperation virtually stretching across her face from the eyesore.
Having lived on the snowfield for eleven years, she had seen quite a few two-legged beasts. Some were strong, some were cunning, and some were neither strong nor cunning but exceptionally good at running.
But such an abstract two-legged beast was truly a first for her.
Rate on N.U.
